Environmental Disaster and Response

Self-care. It’s one of the first things you learn in nursing school, but what exactly is it? It’s the ability and power to take necessary time to tend to your physical, mental, and spiritual health and wellbeing. What it all comes down to is figuring out a way to make that time for yourself especially … Keep reading »

Before you read, go ahead and take a seat. … Take a deep breath. … Clear your mind. …. Picture yourself where you are right now. I, for one, am sitting on the carpet floor reflecting on the past week and a half. The lights are off and I sit alone with my thoughts roaming … Keep reading »

A piece of being human is entering a space or situation with prior conceived assumptions. Assumptions about who people are and what they believe as well as more general assumptions about where we will stay and what we will spend our time doing. When our assumptions don’t match reality it’s hard to be excited or … Keep reading »

The days fly by as we continue to volunteer at MDS in response to those who were affected by Hurricane Michael. Our full-time schedule of working on the houses keeps us busy from morning to evening. Since most of us haven’t worked on a house before, it has given a variety of first-time experiences like … Keep reading »

Today was the final day of our first week of service. Throughout the week, we have focused our efforts on a house outside of Marianna and today, we all worked together during the morning to finish the siding on two of the outside walls as well as the front porch. We also made progress on … Keep reading »

After a couple days of very little schedule, there was a shock factor on Monday as we all realized how tightly scheduled our days would be with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS). The schedule each day with MDS is identical: wake up, pack lunches at 6:30 AM, breakfast at 7 AM, devotional at 7:30 AM, and … Keep reading »

After our 17 hour drive we settled in for our first couple days of learning. On Friday, we took a trip to Marianna — the city we would be spending our two weeks with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS). We spent the whole day in Marianna learning about MDS, the local long term recovery group, and … Keep reading »